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Charles Darwin

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Posts posted by Charles Darwin

    I'm getting a new VCS after all!

    in Atari VCS

    Posted · Edited by Charles Darwin

    6 hours ago, zzip said:

    I've upgraded plenty of PCs,  what bothers me about upgrading the VCS is the delicate antenna wires and ribbon cables that could easily break.  That plus the videos I watched on accessing the RAM seem to do a lot of disassembly, including removing the heatsink (not sure if that's necessary).   I think you or someone else here said the RAM is easier to access from the other side?

    The RAM would be easier to access from the bottom. Everything was designed inside the VCS for a hole on the bottom (by the guy who designed the VCS and left the project in 2019). Yet, the Atari dev team decided to save some $$$...at the last stage. When you remove the four screws on the bottom of the VCS...remove the back panel first...then it is very easy to open the cover to the front (the front panel will drop off by itself). You just have to be careful to position the cover near the VCS. I opened it several times and never had a problem. The two USB connectors are a bit unusual...they have a kind of a button on the inner side, you have to press to release the cables.

    HDMI CEC - switch your TV on and off

    in VCS Programming/Homebrew

    Posted

    One would think that a media center / video game console can handle HDMI CEC. In other words the VCS is supposed to switch your TV on and off at startup and shutdown. I could not find any CEC-functionality and I assume it's not built in. So I bought an external HDMI-CEC adapter from here (yes...it is expensive) installed the cec-utils package in Linux Mint and realized that it is a bit more complicated than I thought ?

     

    The adapter is made for Kodi, but I wanted my VCS to switch the TV at startup and shutdown. So I created two scripts in my home directory (subfolder scripts)...sh-files are attached.

    A start_and_stop.service file I put in /etc/systemd/system...file is attached.

    Then I activated the service as described here and here.

     

    Now my VCS switches the TV on (HDMI 1) and switches it off automatically...and I can forget about my TV remote ?

    TV-off.sh TV-on.sh start_and_stop.service

    • Like 2

    VCS BIOS Related Discussions

    in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Middleman said:

    I thought to let you guys know, if anyone is planning on booting other OSes I found that the VCS's BIOS actually is only 32-bit firmware. So you may run into some troubles with 64-bit versions (just so you know).
     

    Linux Mint 64-bit...on the eMMC (later on the M.2 SSD)...since January 2nd ?

    • Like 1

    MacOS on the Atari VCS

    in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Charles Darwin

    22 minutes ago, Middleman said:

    CD, may I ask what Terminal CPU settings and Catalina version did you use with your Virtualbox? As I couldn't get mine to boot...it stops at Log BS:EXIT every time even though I've enabled pretty much everything I could think of. (I'm running Windows 10).

    I used these settings...you have to change the relevant lines to vboxmanage.exe though. This is mostly Linux ?    https://gist.github.com/movibe/b9707f1b4b2674e1c5749fdc4b1f94b6

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

    VCS BIOS Related Discussions

    in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, RetroAxis said:

    ... In theory, this would still work even if Atari changes the PW in a future update unless they start to encrypt the string in the BIOS. So for now, no need to fry your motherboards.

    The Macronix chip is very robust...believe me...I really tortured it with a paperclip...as long as you just connect CLK with the data output, it just blocks the communication...and you can safely enter the bios...although in a virgin state only...it does not show you the changed settings.

    • Like 1

    VCS BIOS Related Discussions

    in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

    Posted

    @andymanone

    I think this is the main partition of the emmc, you are looking at. The EFI partitions are EFI-A, EFI-B and EFI-recovery. There are some other strange partitions...verity-A, verity-B, rootfs-A, rootfs-B...which look more promising. Thanks to your boot-from-emmc-disable thing, I dont need any other BIOS setting changes right now. I can use VirtualBox and my VCS boots from the m.2 drive, despite having an original emmc (AtariOS). I am happy with my VCS...life is good ?

     

     

     

     

    • Thanks 2

    VCS BIOS Related Discussions

    in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

    Posted

    During every boot of the AtariOS it checks for updates and automatically installs them. AtariOS updates AND firmware (Bios) updates. You can be sure that a firmware update will come soon...with a new pw ;-)

    Does anyone know, where the password was stored? On the emmc or eeprom?

    The AtariOS also (automatically) removes any changes you made to the EFI partitions of the emmc. So they clearly thought about security...and yes, I think it is relevant for the future of the VCS.

    • Like 1

    Multi Boot Loader for USB/eMMC

    in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

    Posted

    It looks very beta, when someone has to enter the BIOS to boot any non-Atari-OS. The Atari team should at least install a boot manager like rEFInd.

    I just tried and on my system it works very well. You can configure it, but the standard configuration is that it boots the OS from last time...after 10 seconds or so.

     

    Download the rEFInd usb image from here

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.12.0/refind-flashdrive-0.12.0.zip/download

     

    Copy it to a usb stick (in Linux Mint right-click on the img-file...there is an option "create bootable usb" or similar).

    Reboot the VCS. It boots from the rEFInd stick. It takes a while until the boot options are displayed (it scans all drives). Check if you can boot the AtariOS and your other OSs.

    If it works, in the rEFInd GUI there is an option "install to disk" or similar. Now...this is important...choose the EFI-A partition. This is the boot partition of the AtariOS. Reboot...remove the USB stick.

    Now you dont need the ESC and BIOS procedure anymore to boot from the OS of your choice.

     

    There is just one unsolved problem. You can do lots of configurations in the refind.conf file. The problem is that you cannot do it from the refind-GUI...and in another Linux OS the partition EFI-A is locked. Maybe it works in Windows. I havent figured that out yet. Just thought I let you know...

    https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/configfile.html

     

    EDIT: Important!!! If you want to undo it, you need an Atari USB flash stick! ?

     

    refind.jpg

    EFI-A-partition.png

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 3

    Atari OS on other hardware

    in VCS Programming/Homebrew

    Posted

    I still cannot figure out, why somebody wants to "hack" an OS, which simply is a slightly adapted Linux distro. It doesn't even have apps for Netflix or Amazon Prime. On the "AtariOS" the Netflix/Amazon-Prime "apps" are just Google Chrome shortcuts. It seems to me that the Atari team just programmed the dashboard and the online shop...and somehow integrated Atari Emus...but I am no expert...

    • Like 2

    MacOS on the Atari VCS

    in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

    Posted

    The installation needs some manual fixes. When you run the script (spaghetti), the VM starts but never boots to the GUI. So you have to keep the terminal window open (it says press enter, once the language options appear), open another terminal window. Close the VM manually. Now you have to apply some special settings, I found here https://gist.github.com/movibe/b9707f1b4b2674e1c5749fdc4b1f94b6

    The most important one is the line with the cpu-profile. You have to replace the "mac" with the name of your VM, in my case it was "macOS".

    Once you are done with the vboxmanage stuff, start the VM again from the Virtualbox start screen. Now it will boot and show you the GUI with the language settings and you can press enter in the first terminal window (installation script).

     

    In the description of myspaghetti it says that one can update to MacOS BigSur, but it wont boot. I tried that. It actually boots and it works pretty well on the VCS, yet every time you shut it down and reboot, it says it recovered from a problem.

    Here's another screenshot...

    It's just fun...MacOS is supposed to run on Mac hardware only...now it runs even on an Atari! These guys did a great job!!! ?

    Big-Sur.png

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    VCS BIOS Related Discussions

    in VCS PC-Mode Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Charles Darwin

    I checked again...restored the original state of the eMMC with the Atari flash USB stick and entered the BIOS with my little friend (paperclip). Changed the AMD SVM setting back to disable. Rebooted. My virtualbox machines complained about missing virtualization option in the BIOS. Restarted...BIOS...enabled the AMD SVM setting...F10...booted into the Atari OS. No update. Restarted...ESC...chose my M.2 drive...Linux Mint...my virtualmachines worked again.

    So I dont need the "eMMC boot disable" thing. My changes are always persistent...dont know why...despite any recovery mechanisms on the eMMC. I just need my paperclip ;-)

     

    ...just one more thing...somebody asked about overclocking features in the BIOS...he might love this screenshot

    DRAM-timing.jpg

    • Like 6
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